Political Economy Of Fairness

This work questions how governments should balance the aims of justice and economic efficiency when intervening in the economy. It covers the main advances of fairness theory and reviews the experimental work of economists as well as the more standard approaches of moral philosophers.

The main features of the just society, as they would be chosen by the unanimous, impartial, and fully informed judgment of its members, present a remarkable and simple meaningful structure. In this society, individuals' freedom is full respected, and redistribution amounts to an equal sharing of individuals' different earnings obtained by the same limited "equalization labour." This also amounts to general balanced reciprocity, where each individual yields to each other the proceeds of the same labour. The concept of equalization labour is a measure of the degree of community, solidarity, reciprocity, redistribution, and equalization of the under consideration. It is determined by a number of methods presented in this study, which also emphasizes the rationality, meanings, properties, and ways of practical implementation of this optimum distribution. This result is compared with various distributive principles found in practice and in political, philosophical, and economic thinking, with the conclusion that most can have their proper specific scope of application. The analytical presentation of the social ethics of economics is particularly enlightening. Serge-Christophe Kolm is the author of more than thirty books and several hundred professional articles concerning, notably, normative economics, public economics, macroeconomics, social change, and political psychological philosophy. He is Professor and Director at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time. If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and people interact in this next era of the world? A Political Economy of Justice considers the strained state of our political economy in terms of where it can go from here. The contributors to this timely and essential volume look squarely at how normative and positive questions about political economy interact with each other—and from that beginning, how to chart a way forward to a just economy. A Political Economy of Justice collects fourteen essays from prominent scholars across the social sciences, each writing in one of three lanes: the measures of a just political economy; the role of firms; and the roles of institutions and governments. The result is a wholly original and urgent new benchmark for the next stage of our democracy.

Americo Beviglia Zampetti s Fairness in the World Economy provides an important lens into understanding fairness debates in contemporary trade discourse. . . an important contribution to the trade literature. . . the historical excavation that Fairness in the World Economy provides is of great value. Students and scholars alike will find Zampetti s clear and concise history of US trade policy from the founding to the present to be extremely useful. More importantly, at a time when there is widespread argument that too few share in [globalization s] benefits [and] too many have no voice in its design and no influence on its course, Fairness in the World Economy invites its readers to consider the adequacy of the level playing field notion of fairness and to grapple with the politically contentious question of how trade can help create a more just international economic order. Jeffrey L. Dunoff, The American Journal of International Law This is an unusually timely and insightful work, addressing the crucial issue of the justice of globalization. The author avoids the polemics and abstractions with which this question is usually treated; his economic literacy as well as hands-on policy experience in international and transnational institutions, make this a uniquely practical, balanced and nuanced account, bringing much clarity to a heated debate, which usually divides the different disciplines and specialities rather than inciting their engagement. Robert L. Howse, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US This volume describes the birth (with all the birth defects) of the notion of fairness in the US. The extent of the author's research is quite breathtaking: not only does he delve into an infinite series of official and semi-official documents, but he also looks at case law, opinions expressed in the literature etc., to come up with an expression of (US) fairness that does not suffer from selection bias. But this is only half what the author has accomplished through his work. He goes on to examine how US fairness has been exported to international institutions (such as the GATT/WTO regime) and demonstrates how, once discussed and shaped among all trading partners, it has come back to the US in a different form. The book thus provides both the inside out and the outside in perspective. It will prove invaluable for the political scientist, the economic historian and the lawyer alike. Petros C. Mavroidis, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, US and University of Neuchatel, Switzerland & CEPR This book represents a significant scholarly contribution to the field of international political economy, with particular respect to the evolution of the multilateral trading system. The author engages effectively with the current debate concerning the conflict between the legalistic foundations of the multilateral trading system underpinned by the equality of nation states and the demands for fair trade on the basis of inter-personal equity. It is a coherent and well-researched book on a critically important issue that has not received the significant attention that it deserves within the field of international trade policy. Robert Read, Lancaster University Management School, UK In an international context, fairness is particularly important, since only a system which is perceived by its participants as fair can command acceptance and compliance. The main focus of this study is to investigate the development of the notion of fairness in US trade policy and law as well as the impact this notion has on international trade discussions and rule-making, and especially on the formation of the multilateral trade regime. The contention of the author, Americo Beviglia Zampetti, is that fairness concerns, which have been present in the US trade policy debates and treaty practice since the Republic s inception, have contributed to shaping these debates and practice over the years, both at home and abroad. These concerns were

The book Capital and Justice calls for a deep examination of current power, politics and economics in a social context where democratic institutions are being threatened. The contributions discuss the various aspects of global accumulation, production and employment from a broader perspective in order to examine their interlinkages with other economic, social, and political processes. Indeed, concerns with social inclusion extend well beyond the purely economic account of justice and fairness, since the degree of economic inequality also affects social cohesion and political stability, and can also have negative implications for economic growth and democratic institutions. The book focuses on the theoretical analysis and empirical discussions about the contemporary relations among the inflated financial markets, the low investment trends and the changes in the patterns of production and employment. In this respect, there were three groups of contributions that aim to think and build a just economy. The first group (Koo; Hermann; Madi) presents the main features of global economic dynamics. The second (Yadu and Satheesha; Eynon) analyses the urgent social challenges and the trends in political strategies. Finally, the third group (Komlos; Lima; Morgan-MilA) challenges conventional mainstream viewpoints and highlight the foundations of an alternative political economy paradigm. The editors, Gerson P. Lima and Maria Alejandra Madi, hope the book will stimulate further debate among students, professional economists and social scientists - whether academics or not - on how to progress towards rethinking the relations between economics, justice and democracy, that is, between economics and politics. "This is a timely book of extraordinary importance for both academic and non-academic audiences. Written by progressive economists, the book is not only insightful and disturbing, but also convincing and inspiring. The book examines the convoluted journey of economic globalization that has fundamentally reshaped capital and labour around the world since late 1980s. It demonstrates that economic globalization has subjugated politics to economics, and in the process, empowered the rich and disempowered the poor. As such, the authors advocate for new ways of promoting policy initiatives that are more socially inclusive and economically just. Obviously, this requires re-gaining the primacy of politics over economics and reorienting the economic matrix of market economics in both theory and practice." Wilder Robles, Assistant Professor, Department of Rural Studies, Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada. "The is the best book by economists I've read on economics and justice. Almost makes it possible to see that justice and economics are not natural enemies. Keep probing." Kenneth R. Zimmerman, PhD, Principal Research Historian, The History Business (www.thehistorybusiness.com), United States "This new World Economics Association book, edited by Gerson P. Lima and Maria Alejandra Madi, addresses some of the current hottest issues after the 2008 financial meltdown, trying to build a bridge between politics and economics. The traditional approach has been to respect a division of labor within the social sciences where economic and political science studies were supposed to belong to different worlds. The result has been to extract the essentials from most of the crucial issues of the economic and political reality." Victor A. Beker, Professor of Economics at the University of Belgrano and the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

The definition and measurement of social welfare have been a vexed issue for the past century. This book makes a constructive, easily applicable proposal and suggests how to evaluate the economic situation of a society in a way that gives priority to the worse-off and that respects each individual's preferences over his or her own consumption, work, leisure and so on. This approach resonates with the current concern to go 'beyond the GDP' in the measurement of social progress. Compared to technical studies in welfare economics, this book emphasizes constructive results rather than paradoxes and impossibilities, and shows how one can start from basic principles of efficiency and fairness and end up with concrete evaluations of policies. Compared to more philosophical treatments of social justice, this book is more precise about the definition of social welfare and reaches conclusions about concrete policies and institutions only after a rigorous derivation from clearly stated principles.

As demand for natural resources increases due to the rise in world population and living standards, conflicts over their access and control are becoming more prevalent. This book critically assesses different approaches to and conceptualizations of resource fairness and justice and applies them to the analysis of resource conflicts. Approaches addressed include cosmopolitan liberalism, political economy and political ecology. These are applied at various scales (local, national, international) and to initiatives and instruments in public and private resource governance, such as corporate social responsibility instruments, certification schemes, international law and commodity markets. In doing so, the contributions contrast existing approaches to fairness and justice and extend them by taking into account the interplay between political scales, regions, resources, and power structures in "glocalized" resource politics. Various case studies are included concerning agriculture, agrofuels, land grabbing, water resources, mining and biodiversity. The volume adds to the academic and policy debate by bringing together a variety of disciplines and perspectives in order to advance both a research and policy agenda that puts notions of resource fairness and justice center-stage.